Impressionist Trees

So I totally copied this from someone's blog....only I can not think of where it is:( It is really a great lesson though. I read a story about Impressionist painters to first grade. They thought the paintings were fantastic. We also discussed primary and secondary colors, and color mixing. Students turned their paper landscape, then we drew a ground line. Next, students had to draw three trees, one on each side of the paper and one in the middle. We used primary colors and Impressionist brush strokes to paint the leaves on each of our trees, then took turns mixing the secondary colors. Some of the kids got a little carried away, but I think everyone came away with knew knowledge about the primary and secondary colors.

Kindergarten Sunflowers

Something about the first of the year just puts sunflowers on my brain....anyways, I love these paintings by Kindergarten! We talked about Vincent Van Gogh and looked at several of his paintings. We first painted circles in orange and yellow, then added petals to the circles. I showed students how to paint the stems and the centers. I stressed the correct way to use a paint brush. They really turned out wonderful.

Lines and Shapes

Fifth grade has been working on these beautiful watercolors for several weeks now. We talked about geometric and free form shapes, as well as line. Students drew five organic leaf shapes, then filled the rest of the picture in with a minimum of eight line designs. Pencil lines were traced with sharpies, then the leftover pencil line were erased. Students painted a water color wash over the picture. I love the results!

Vincent Van Gogh Sunflowers

Third graders did a study of Vincent Van Gogh. We read Camille and the Sunflowers by Lawrence Anholt, then talked about some of Van Gogh's paintings. We used white chalk to draw the flower, then yellows, oranges, and browns to color the sunflowers in. I used a gum eraser to erase smudge marks and then sprayed the drawings with cheap hairspray. I love the results, and everyone was successful!

Fourth Grade Houses

Fourth graders have been working on drawing houses. We talked about architecture and looked at different styles of homes. Fourth graders were given a handout with different styles of windows, doors, steps, and many other details. They drew the homes in pencil first, then outlines the houses in black sharpie marker. The students are in the process of coloring the houses now.